Joker activated the Normandy's cloak when they got close to the Mu Relay and kept it up as they passed through it and glided through space that had remained still and free of any ship for centuries.
As the threat of pursuit from Citadel space faded, the looming threat in front of them settled over the ship. Everything was hushed, the crew talking in low voices. None of the squad slept more than a couple hours. None of them spoke out loud about it, but the fact they had no idea what was waiting for them on Ilos except the Conduit...itself just a name...was in the forefront of their minds. So was the fact there was a very real possibility they wouldn't be coming back or they would be unable to stop Saren.
Kaidan sat alone at one of the tables in the mess hall after speaking with Shepard, going over several notes on his omni-tool without really looking at them. In what seemed a long time ago, he had wondered what would happen if it came down to a conflict between Shepard and the Alliance. And now that Udina had forced that to come to pass...it hadn't really been a hard choice at all. If someone had told him months ago that would be the case, he would have thought they were crazy.
He was both honored and disappointed by the task she'd laid on him. On one hand, he was disappointed he likely wasn't going to be there to face Saren down and see Ashley avenged, but he understood why Shepard wanted him on the Normandy. She wanted him where she thought he needed to be, even if it wasn't where he wanted to be, exactly.
You're a better symbol of the Alliance than I've ever been, Kaidan. You're respected by this crew and by the Alliance in general, there isn't anyone better to leave here when everything goes down.
One way or another, there was going to be a battle soon. The Council didn't truly understand what they were up against, but he did.
We finally get out here and the 'final frontier' was already settled. And the residents don't even seem impressed by the view. Or the dangers.
He remembered saying that to her wryly during a conversation. Shepard was trusting him to be her voice in that battle with an outcome that was just as uncertain as whatever the rest of the squad would face tomorrow. She trusted him, the burnt out kid from BAaT, to stand for her and for Ashley, for Jenkins and Kahoku and for everyone that had died in Saren's hellbent quest to deliver them to the Reapers. And, though she didn't say it out loud, to stand for everyone in the galaxy in case they failed on Ilos.
They won't fail.
He would believe that until there was no other option.
The Normandy was so terribly quiet. It had upset her sleep more than once because she couldn't really hear the engines. On the Fleet, a quiet engine meant a dead engine, which was plenty of cause for panic. Tonight, however, that was only on the back of Tali's mind.
It would be, in Tali's considered opinion, the height of irony that she had found this great cache of information to bring back to the Fleet and complete her Pilgrimage only to be immediately arrested the second she returned there. She knew none of the others quite understood how grave a crime stealing a ship was in her culture. How her father would probably want to execute her himself for it. Nor did she intend to enlighten them. She didn't want them to feel any doubts or worries during the mission. Her Pilgrimage, after all, was to prove she was willing to give herself for the greater good, how could she do anything less? She'd made her choice, the same as they all had, and would face the consequences the same way they would.
Because she was one of them. She doubted, too, that Shepard could understand how much that meant to her...to any of their race. Even her easy teasing, calling her 'queen' and 'your majesty', had its roots in wanting to show her she was as much part of the crew of anyone here. After all the looks and mutterings she'd seen and heard as she had traveled, the pointed disgust from so many people...even when she'd tried to warn them about Saren and the geth, no one would even listen to her. And then...the Normandy. The uneasy alliance with so many other races that had gradually become a true alliance. Here, she was respected for her abilities as much as she would have been on the Fleet...perhaps even a little bit more...the Alliance was good with engines but that hadn't stopped Engineer Adams from putting her knowledge to use. Even Garrus, who had started out scolding her on behalf of her race, had been willing to take the risk of trying to hack Citadel control rather than let her take the no doubt harsher punishment she would have received.
The quarian touched the disks containing the geth information and the databases she had put together over the course of the mission, pleading with her father silently for understanding. Assuming she ever saw him again.
She thought maybe...maybe he would be willing to, even a crime as serious as the one she had helped perpetuate. After all, he knew as well as she the value of loyalty.
Especially to your crew.
Tali wasn't the only member of the squad hoping for a parent's understanding. Howard gave Garrus a silent thumbs up- another of those human gestures he knew the meaning of but didn't get at all -and he waited tensely, hoping the secure connection went through.
He shouldn't be bothering her, he told himself. Solana had told him how tired she had been lately, what with all the tests and such she had been going through. The fact this might be the last chance he ever got to speak with her, coupled with the fact she surely knew what he had helped do and was probably already distressed, drove him to do it anyway.
He took a deep breath as she answered, her image appearing in the small holo-projector in the console. Her carapace was darker than his own, the tan markings of the colony where she was born standing out in sharp contrast. The tattoo had a more complex design across her face and mandibles than it would have on a male because it would have swept up over the crest, which she lacked. Even though the image was small, he could clearly see how right his sister was: she looked tired, worn down. Worry swept though him even as she jerked back a bit, shocked. "Garrus?" Her image blurred a bit, the audio crackling.
"Hi, Mom."
"Garrus, is that really you? Where are you? Your father said you'd been implicated in some kind of crime."
He could only imagine what his father had to say on the subject. "It's complicated..."
"Garrus."
His mouth snapped shut, the same response as when he'd been a child and she'd spoken to him in that tone of voice. Even his father didn't dare argue with her when she was using that tone of voice.
She'd drawn herself up to her full height and crossed her arms over her chest. Frail as she was, weighed down by whatever sickness they still couldn't identify, she was still intimidating as hell when she did that. "Don't even try to brush this off. I know the commander stole the Council's ship."
"I helped her." It was her nature as his mother, he supposed, to try and instinctively give him a way out, but he couldn't place the blame on Shepard's shoulders and pretend he hadn't known what she was going to do. That was a disservice to all of them. "We're going to stop Saren."
"I was under the impression he had been neutralized by the precautions the Council was taking." She sounded genuinely confused.
"I have no doubt they believe that. They haven't seen what we've seen."
She was silent for a long moment. "You're certain?"
He didn't hesitate. "Yes."
His mother sighed. "I had wondered...I knew you would not have participated in it unless you felt you had to."
Her understanding made Garrus' throat feel tight. His mother was just as much a stickler for the rules as his father...in most ways. However, she, unlike Dad, acknowledged that there were rare occasions it was necessary to bend or even break them. "I wanted to...just to see you. And try to explain," he finally said quietly.
She understood all too well what he wasn't saying. "It's dangerous."
"Yes."
"Enough you're not certain you'll survive it?"
"There's nothing certain at this point." And he wanted his family to know about it in case he didn't come back. The fact he'd called her for it instead of his father was another thing unspoken. The rift between them was painful for her and Solana. But he would have spent what time he had arguing with his father. His mother had always been the one who listened. "All I can say for certain is I'll do whatever it takes to protect you...to protect us all."
"I believe you. I always saw it in you. Be careful you don't wrap yourself up in saving people you lose sight of yourself."
Shepard had said basically the same thing in a different way. Funny, before now, he never would have made any sort of connection between her and his mother. He nodded.
His mother bowed her head for a moment, silent. "Then the spirits walk with you, my son."
"Thank you..."
Her tone took on that quiet command again. "And come back to us, Garrus. I'll be damned if my boy is going to die before me."
Wrex scanned the messages he'd been receiving since Virmire. They had not found the cure when they had searched the base, but the information they had gathered had been carefully distributed to certain krogan on Tuchanka. A first step.
He smiled a bit at one of the messages from Clan Urdnot. The same krogan who had been shaman in his youth was still going strong.
In public, he was a neutral advisor. In private, it was another matter entirely. He'd ripped on Wrex for leaving in the first place before giving him advice on who to send the information about what Saren was doing. It would be a good rallying point, something to grab the attention of the other krogan. Not simply a matter of keeping them from dying out anymore...they needed to take charge of their destiny before someone else did. There was no reason not to set the foundation for returning to Tuchanka now. The shaman's biggest challenge would be preparing Clan Urdnot without alerting Wreav too much. His brother was a great warrior but the idiot couldn't think without making blood shoot out his ears, Wrex thought with a sneer. He was potential trouble, but Wrex had no worries about dealing with him face to face. But it couldn't hurt to keep him in the dark until that actually happened.
The messages from some of the other clan leaders, had him leaning back, satisfied. They were wary, they weren't quite ready to say anything for sure, but they were listening.
Maybe you're actually good for something, Saren. He wondered if he would have a chance to thank the turian for giving him something to help rally the krogan together before they killed him. He imagined the look on Saren's face would be priceless.
Ilos. They were going to Ilos.
Liara rested on her cot, unable to sleep for excitement. One of the Prothean's greatest cities, Ilos was a mystical name, one she'd only heard in her studies but had never thought she would ever see. There were references to its greatness and beauty before some catastrophe had leveled it so many years ago. Of course, she knew what that catastrophe was now. She admitted she had been a bit worried. They were more comfortable around each other now, but there were still awkward moments. If Shepard hadn't been prepared to let her come, she'd almost been willing to beg her to let her come along, just to see it.
Of course, she wouldn't have time to do any real study of it, but she was hoping she would be able to come back now that the coordinates for the Mu Relay were known.
She smiled at herself. In a few hours, she would be facing down an army of geth and possibly walking right into her own death and she was excited about it. Mother would have been so amused.
Her smile faded. Mother...
You have always made me proud, Liara.
Another reason for coming here to Ilos. If there was a means of figuring out how the Reapers worked...and how to stop them...it would be here.
The impact of it hit her fully for the first time. For millions...possibly billions...of years, the Reapers had apparently run this mindless cycle of theirs and now...through a series of circumstances, they might actually have a chance of stopping it.
That was certainly something her mother would have wanted.
Liara turned onto her side, staring into the darkness. It's even more than finding out more about the Protheans, Mother. We'll finally avenge you, and save lives, which would have meant more for you.
And, possibly, avenge the deaths of countless other races in the process.
Howard intercepted Shepard as she came out of the elevator, her brows furrowed. She looked at him. "Joker mentioned there was a secure signal being sent out..."
"Me and Garrus finagled something so he could speak to someone he really needed to for a few minutes," Howard said quietly. "Ain't no one going to trace it, Ari."
Shepard glanced toward the turian, who stood at a console with his back to them. She nodded, letting the subject drop. "Okay."
Now that she was on the lower decks, her feet seemed to have minds of their own, carrying her across the deck until she was standing near the weapons' lockers. She could almost see Ashley as she'd been the last time Shepard had seen her here, listening to messages from her family. The last ones her family would send to her.
Howard came up beside her and slung an arm around her shoulders. He stood beside her for a long moment, silent, then spoke quietly"Girl's up in Heaven looking down and cheering you on. And probably pissed off she won't get a chance to kick Saren in the balls."
"You know, I could name several church type people who would claim she wasn't worthy of Heaven no matter what she believed," Shepard said quietly, a faint sneer in her voice.
"Any heaven that wouldn't allow Ash Williams in isn't worth the title, that's what I say," Howard snorted.
"Amen, Padre."
Howard chortled and they fell silent for a long moment again. "Coming to the end game, aren't we?" Howard finally said.
"Yes."
He felt the change in her, didn't need to glance over to see it, but he did anyway. The sorrow and regret were gone from her eyes. That coldness was settling over her, her focus entirely on the task...and enemies...before her. It was like a blanket of stillness that had fallen over her. It was a chilling sight, though he wasn't, and never had been, afraid of her because of it. He looked back toward Ashley's spot. If any of the spirits of the turians were still looking over Saren Arterius, he better hope they were willing to show him mercy. Because Shepard wasn't going to.
The lower deck was quiet as Joker moved in, dropping through the atmosphere toward Saren's position. Liara hesitated as she started to join the others in the Mako. "Can he do it, Shepard?"
"What? Pull off a drop that's 80 feet shorter than it should be? Well, if anyone can..." Shepard shrugged.
Liara blew out a breath and ducked into the Mako.
Joker's voice crackled over the comm. "Getting ready for the final push here, Commander. Oh, Pressley thought you might want to know that Charles Saracino did an interview with Westerlund News claiming you threatened him and al-Jilani is suggesting an investigation may be in order."
"Whoo, Christ, I'm in trouble now!"
"If I were you, I'd be real scared, ma'am, those people obviously mean business."
She let out a wild hoot of laughter. "Joker, drop us right on top of that bastard." Shepard swung into the Mako and shut the door. Howard moved to the door controls as Joker started the countdown. The old engineer saluted them and hit the button, letting the cargo bay door drop open enough Shepard could drive the Mako through as Joker gave her the go ahead.
She saw Saren as they dropped, her eyes narrowing as she threw all her focus on keeping them from overshooting the landing point. She registered two things as the turian caught sight of them and sent his geth hurrying toward a set of doors leading into a ruined building: her absolutely brilliant pilot had been dead on about getting them dropped under impossible conditions; he'd gotten them down within twenty feet when no one else had ever done it under a hundred, they were going to land safely and right at the spot; they were also not going to make it before Saren closed the doors.
Indeed, the Mako skidded to a halt in front of the doors a second after they closed. Shepard growled in displeasure, eyeing them. No way they were going to be able to ram them. She glanced back at Liara, who was clutching the side of the vehicle and probably saying a prayer to the goddess even if she didn't worship her. "Looks like you're going to get a look at these ruins on foot after all."
AN: Aaaaaaaaaaand here we go!